Fallout from a $740,000
severance package awarded to Keansburg's school superintendent
spread Wednesday as state officials rejected a Plainfield
superintendent's pending contract and demanded details of
the contracts in place for superintendents in the other
so-called Abbott districts.
The actions come a day after
Gov. Jon Corzine promised a review of every superintendent's
contract in response to concerns about the lucrative Keansburg
severance package.
"We have asked each of the Abbott
district superintendents to provide their contracts to be
reviewed," said Corzine, who said it is the first phase of
a broader review that will be conducted by the newly installed
executive county superintendents the Legislature created last
year.
"We will have to work our way
through this in the context of how many people we have and
the priorities we make," he said. "We will try to look to
the executive county superintendents for every contract."
Under regulations that allow
the state to monitor local school spending, Education Commissioner
Lucille Davy vetoed a contract enhancement Plainfield had
awarded to Steven Gallon as new superintendent of the city's
6,500-student school district.
The deal Davy voided would have
paid Gallon $198,000 a year beginning July 1, as well as providing
him supplemental payments for travel, meals and lodging; relocation
expenses; life insurance entitlement; and sick leave reimbursement.
"This is in keeping with what
the Legislature intended ... which was transparency and accountability
for the way in which taxpayer dollars are spent," Davy said.
Davy's department notified superintendents
in the 31 so-called Abbott districts, which are provided billions
of dollars in state aid under terms of the Abbott vs. Burke
school funding lawsuit, yesterday morning to inform them of
the review. The action was the first step in a review of all
school superintendent contracts Corzine called for earlier
this week.
"I sent mine first thing," said
Robert Holster, who earns $211,000 after 15 years as superintendent
of Passaic, the state's ninth-largest school district. "I
feel there's nothing to hide."
Joseph Ferraina, superintendent
of Long Branch schools, confirmed he also had gotten a phone
call from the Department of Education yesterday morning seeking
a copy of his contract.
"Anybody who wants to look at
it, they can look at it," said Ferraina, who earns $220,000
after 14 years on the job. "Different people have contracts
they negotiate -- God bless them."
The heightened scrutiny is the
result of growing outrage over a $740,000 severance package
the outgoing Keansburg superintendent, Barbara Trzeszkowski,
arranged in 2003. In July, Trzeszkowski was to begin collecting
$184,586 for 235.5 unused sick days and 20 vacation days and
another $556,290 calculated by multiplying her current monthly
salary by the number of years she has worked in Keansburg.
The payments come on top of
the estimated $120,000 standard pension Trzeszkowski earned
during her 38.5 years in Keansburg schools. They exceed the
increase in school aid Corzine's new school funding formula
awarded to Keansburg this year.
Corzine called the severance
package "an outrageous abuse of the state's publicly funded
school system," and has asked Attorney General Anne Milgram's
office to seek a court injunction this week to block the payments.
On Tuesday, the Keansburg board
agreed to suspend payments under the deal while they renegotiate
the severance package with Trzeszkowski, 60, who is scheduled
to step down June 30.